Skor North: Year one comparisons for Minnesota Gophers Niko Medved and Ben Johnson

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Per Skor North:

The Minnesota Gophers men’s basketball team continued their biggest slide so far of the 2025/2026 season as losers of now five games in a row after falling to Nebraska on Saturday. The Gophers do continue to play hard and competitive, so that’s a good thing. How does year one of Niko Medved rank in comparison to year one of Ben Johnson with the Gophers. Finally, what are some of our favorite Minnesota Gophers upset wins in recent memory…

www.skornorth.com

GOPHERS: Year one comparisons for Minnesota Gophers Niko Medved and Ben Johnson – SKOR North

The Minnesota Gophers men’s basketball team continued their biggest slide so far of the 2025/2026 season as losers of now five games in a row after falling to N
www.skornorth.com www.skornorth.com

Go Gophers!!
 


Willis, Lowe, Stephens and Sutherlin IMO compare favorably to Asuma, Shainholster and Reynolds. Lowe was less athletic than Reynolds but a better shooter. I would also take Battle over Durkin and Tyson. JCJ and Grove are a better combo than Curry and Daniels though. Both teams lost significant depth pieces, I think Niko's team is better coached but Ben's first team had some Herculean efforts as well and ran out of gas in February. In Ben's first year in I think they went iron five for all 40 minutes in the BTT
 

The Deliberate Stranger said:
Willis, Lowe, Stephens and Sutherlin IMO compare favorably to Asuma, Shainholster and Reynolds. Lowe was less athletic than Reynolds but a better shooter. I would also take Battle over Durkin and Tyson. JCJ and Grove are a better combo than Curry and Daniels though. Both teams lost significant depth pieces, I think Niko's team is better coached but Ben's first team had some Herculean efforts as well and ran out of gas in February. In Ben's first year in I think they went iron five for all 40 minutes in the BTT
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I think Curry played one minute
 

My initial reaction is be serious...but as I think about it they are pretty similar. Both teams lacked Big Ten talent. And I find myself saying both teams were well coached.
Fast forward and we found a few flaws with Ben's coaching. Niko in the present seems like a miracle worker...but to a lesser degree I think Ben did too in year one. Ben made them competitive and we weren't that good. Niko is doing the same thing only maybe a little bit better.
Niko has and had a recruiting advantage over Ben...he has a lot more money to lure transfers.
The question is how much of a jump do we witness in year two with Niko. He can coach but we need about 3 or 4 better starters to match up with the top half of the conference in talent.
 



Everybody wants that super coach with an edge over opposing coaches. Niko Medved looks the part.

Gophers are playing with 6.5 guys. They win through half-time and then run out of gas. Project the first half forward.

USC this season was a win for Gophers except for the worst ref'ing I can remember plus a flop circus that worked for USC. Loss by 1 in OT.

Ohio State game -- despite playing with 6.5 guys -- had the goaltending not called win. Project that forward if they had more bodies.

Gophers were taking it to Illinois to the half and then lopsided calls in the 2nd half, plus Illinois was the better team. Gophers led Nebraska at the half.

For Ben Johnson, some people were too polarized about him from the start, that he was never qualified to be a head coach that could win against other top coaches. Well, Johnson as an assistant did a good job, a Minnesotan with an impressive high school record, played for the U, a great guy. I thought it was defendable to internally promote him and then grow.

Niko Medved looks the part of a coach with an edge, he gets it done, the guys get it done.

I've been having a blast watching the Gophers this season. They get gassed later in games since they only have 6.5 players. Project first halves forward and we have a big winner.

Gophers nearly beat Wisconsin except for a couple WI flops and a buzzer beater, despite being gassed.


Johnson did build a team on the cusp, and then the players left for more money. The Prophet Elijah Hawkins announced he was coming back, dedicated, until money was put in his face and he left after all. The point guard the season before him Ta'lon Cooper was a find by Johnson too, and then he left for money. Johnson then found another find in The Prophet. Payne left and then seen driving a BMW. I think Johnson deserved more credit for what he had to work with than some gave him.

At the same time, Niko looks like the real deal, a potential super coach. A real gem for Minnesota.
 

Rocksoldier said:
I think Curry played one minute
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60's Guy said:
My initial reaction is be serious...but as I think about it they are pretty similar. Both teams lacked Big Ten talent. And I find myself saying both teams were well coached.
Fast forward and we found a few flaws with Ben's coaching. Niko in the present seems like a miracle worker...but to a lesser degree I think Ben did too in year one. Ben made them competitive and we weren't that good. Niko is doing the same thing only maybe a little bit better.
Niko has and had a recruiting advantage over Ben...he has a lot more money to lure transfers.
The question is how much of a jump do we witness in year two with Niko. He can coach but we need about 3 or 4 better starters to match up with the top half of the conference in talent.
Click to expand...
Ben's mistake was going senior laden in year one and young in year two, he essentially wasted the first two years of his tenure based on how he constructed the first team, but maybe his plan was to go all in at Minnesota kids in year one Garcia and Theo John were heading this way too before UNC and Duke stepped in with offers. Garcia obviously eventually made his way here. Ben looked to be breaking through in year three but than it all unraveled that off season and naturally was sent pa of king after year four, with really no hope for a better year five had he stayed
What I like about Niko approach is he took a lot of multi year guys who can play and should continue to get better. His first high school class is pretty similar to Ben's, but since he will have much more returning talent, his in coming class won't be rushed on to the court like Ben's was. If Amy of them play it's because they earned it. Note, I hold the right to change my mind on that last statement if half a dozen guys go out for the season again
 

Personnel may be similar. Results may be similar. Style of play goes to Niko and his squad. Niko's team is so enjoyable to watch on offense. Ball movement and off ball movement is so much better. It's the difference between watching a waltz and watching crazy aunt Alice do a jig in the corner. Most enjoy the waltz, but some like to watch aunt Alice.
 









What is the point of this exercise other than generate content? Everybody gave Ben a mulligan for year 1 anyway. I ain’t gonna listen, but if the narrative is Niko is ahead of where Ben was, how the F does that make anyone feel better? And if the narrative is Niko is not ahead, well, WGAS? Ben’s 2nd year disaster was due mostly to failed recruiting/NIL strategy, and we have no clue what next year’s roster will be for comparison.
 

Many good voices for sports in mn. They cannot crack the fan lineup but that Skol vikes production value podcast guy is awesome.
 

Record wise it might end up similar in year 1.

But they kept talking about how we will lose almost everyone and it will be another new team next year (like it was for Ben.) That just isn't true. Assuming Willis and Viohala get injury waivers, 8 of the top 10 guys have eligibility to return next year.
 

howeda7 said:
Record wise it might end up similar in year 1.

But they kept talking about how we will lose almost everyone and it will be another new team next year (like it was for Ben.) That just isn't true. Assuming Willis and Viohala get injury waivers, 8 of the top 10 guys have eligibility to return next year.
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The question is will they return, though. I have no idea what the locker room is like and no idea how motivated by money the players are, so it’s really hard to predict what returnees will do. If what I’m hearing from people who are plugged in, the locker room is better than it ever was under Ben.
 

Holy Man said:
The question is will they return, though. I have no idea what the locker room is like and no idea how motivated by money the players are, so it’s really hard to predict what returnees will do. If what I’m hearing from people who are plugged in, the locker room is better than it ever was under Ben.
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I doubt they will go 8 for 8. But I'd put the over/under at 5.5 and take the over. 6 returning players (and that doesn't include Turner or Chance Stephens) is very different than what Ben had in year 2.
 

FinnGopher said:
Personnel may be similar. Results may be similar. Style of play goes to Niko and his squad. Niko's team is so enjoyable to watch on offense. Ball movement and off ball movement is so much better. It's the difference between watching a waltz and watching crazy aunt Alice do a jig in the corner. Most enjoy the waltz, but some like to watch aunt Alice.
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Said in another thread there are some similarities between this team and Johnson's first team. Undersized and short handed due to injuries but the comparison falls apart pretty quick after that.

Johnson's first team was built to be mostly a one and done squad with a lot of guys in their final year of eligibility. He was going to go heavy on high school recruits and build from there. Team played hard but lacked a true identity.

Niko's first team has a number of guys who can return for next year and most open spots will be filled with transfers, not high school recruits. The other big difference with Niko's team is that you can see what they are trying to do they just don't have the horses to do it for full games against quality competition. Niko also has a proven track record which should help in pursuing transfers for next year and beyond whereas Johnson was starting from scratch as an unknown.

Obviously no way of knowing what the future holds but it certainly seems like Niko is going to do much better than Johnson did.
 

howeda7 said:
Record wise it might end up similar in year 1.

But they kept talking about how we will lose almost everyone and it will be another new team next year (like it was for Ben.) That just isn't true. Assuming Willis and Viohala get injury waivers, 8 of the top 10 guys have eligibility to return next year.
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From a guy who knows nothing about the process, what are generally the requirements for an injury waiver? Is it simply a cutoff number of games played? Getting another year of those 2 would be huge.
 

Gophers1992 said:
From a guy who knows nothing about the process, what are generally the requirements for an injury waiver? Is it simply a cutoff number of games played? Getting another year of those 2 would be huge.
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I'm not sure what the exact criteria are anymore, but both Viohalla and Willis played less than 7 games, so it's pretty much a lock that they will both be granted an extra year.
 

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